


Suspicion

by iamtheoneinthehole



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Coma!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 23:18:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1365382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamtheoneinthehole/pseuds/iamtheoneinthehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompted anonymously (by podcast!anon);  In several podcasts (late 160s/early170s) Burnie and Gavin talk about how they have been having all of these coincidences. They talk about how this must mean they are in a coma somewhere in the same room. So maybe a fic where they ARE in a coma? Maybe the Gavin's boyfriends who visit him and talk. It could be after Gavin starts working at RT (so the ppl/place IS real but from the coma on is made up) or a complete AU.</p>
<p>It’d been something that he and Burnie had joked about at first...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suspicion

**Author's Note:**

> This was such an incredible prompt to write, thank you so much anon! I just hope I did it the justice it deserves :)
> 
> Also a huge shout out, once again, to 'coolasdicks' for betaing this for me, by this point I'm pretty sure you're actually cooler than dicks ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

It’d been something that he and Burnie had joked about at first. The fact that they both seemed to have all of these weird little moments where coincidences would occur in their lives like them both of them happening to book tickets to a same event or ending up in the same place without discussing their plans at all beforehand… They’d teased each other initially about de ja vu, conspiracy theories, aliens and all kinds of other dumb stuff but neither of them had actually believed any of it. Not at first.

But then the coincidences had continued to happen and, as time had gone on, they’d gotten more specific. Like the incident involving a valet and the wrong car… or the one where he or Burnie would be describing someone only to have that _exact same person_ wander down the street, or into a room, moments later… And they’d also begun to get more frequent, to the point where neither of them could really ignore how bloody weird it was or laugh it off like before seeing as the jokes they’d made at the start were getting less and less funny as it kept on happening… Because what if all of this _wasn’t_ just coincidence, but something bigger than the occasional weird moments they were experiencing right now…

It’d been an idea they’d been quick to dismiss, the thought honestly far too bloody unnerving for either of them to really want to accept, or even fully process, and so they’d both shaken off the weirdness, stubbornly refusing to see the correlating events as anything but coincidence. They’d even gone as far as to bring it up on the next podcast, just to have the others reassure them that they were reading way too much into the little things and that there wasn’t actually any genuine value behind these increasingly weird thoughts and theories they’d been having lately...

As it turned out, it’d helped a little. And Jack’s merciless teasing when they’d headed home from the office that day had driven home that these thoughts were all in his head even more so as he’d taken comfort in the man’s words and his arm casually draped around the Brit’s waist in a slightly possessive way as two of them had travelled the short distance between the Roosterteeth office and the apartment which they’d been sharing with their four other boyfriends for bordering on three months now (and really Gavin still couldn’t believe how bloody lucky they’d gotten in getting the place. Because what were the odds that the people living there would decide to move out just as they’d begun to look into a place to live together?).

When they’d gotten in, his other boyfriends, who’d apparently been listening to the podcast, had teased him just as mercilessly as Jack had about his and Burnie’s theories. And as the evening carried on, their lighthearted jokes and snarky comments had made those theories seem just as dumb as Gavin had wanted to believe they were before. He could feel the tension he’d been carrying with him for weeks now, since the valet incident, finally lifting from his shoulders as he’d willingly subjected himself to his boyfriends’ playful goading.

It wasn’t until much later, when they’d all been curled up in bed that night, that he’d been given any real reason to reassess his theories as perhaps being a little more accurate than he’d like to have believed they were.

_Vav? Honestly don’t know if you can hear me right now I mean… the doctors always say that stuff right? That people who are in a... that those people can hear when you talk to them and… well, I’m not the best with this stuff, you know that but... I’ll talk, just on the off chance it helps… Its really fucking weird seeing you this still. Don’t think I’ve ever seen you stay in one place for more than a few seconds before. It’s kind of weird to be honest… always figured you’d be the type to even move around in your sleep and… well that’s one of the things I’ve always lo... No, I’m not going to say it now, just in case you are hearing this and when you wake up you never let me live it down for telling you this way first when I should’ve said it before. I mean, it shouldn’t have taken this to realise that… nevermind. I’ll get my chance to say it to you when you wake up… because you’re going to wake up Vav, you have to…_

He’d woken up in a cold sweat and shaking as, for a moment, he’d felt this unbearable sort of agony twist within his gut… But then the grogginess had worn off a little and he’d realized he’d been dreaming and that the real Ray was looking at him with wide, concerned, eyes as he asked him what was wrong. He’d forced a smile, knowing full well that it didn’t reach his eyes, as he’d admitted that he’d just had a bloody weird dream but he’d be fine soon enough. His boyfriend had frowned a little at that, but had seemed to accept it easily enough, leaning over to press a soft kiss to his cheek before he’d settled back down next to Ryan. It’d taken a good few minutes though for the Brit to follow suit as he desperately willed sleep to take him far away from the sudden uneasy feeling that was beginning to twist in his gut.

\----

He’d spoken about it with Burnie the next day at work, expecting the man to laugh it off, tell him it was nothing, something… Instead the man had gone white as a sheet, pulling Gavin into his office moments later before he’d sat down and explained that last night he was pretty sure he’d heard Ray talking and something that sounded a little like Gavin’s name… He’d explained that for him it’d been more distant though, as if Ray hadn’t been talking to him but... he could just about overhear him talking to someone else…

He’d also mentioned something about hearing Gus’ voice say something about how he was ‘supposed to be the stubborn one’, something that Burnie was pretty sure _had_ been directed at him but Gavin had barely heard him over the sudden revelation that the dream he’d had last night might be a bit more real than he’d initially have liked to believe…

In the end, they’d both sat there for a long moment before agreeing not to speak about this to anyone else (because how could they when it’d make both of them sound just as crazy as they both bloody felt right now), agreeing to just go about their days as normal and hope against hope that this was another one of those weird coincidences or had just been some weird, residual, subconscious side effect of the conversation they’d had on the podcast the previous day. Just because they were weirded out right now didn’t mean that what they’d just experienced actually meant anything right?

And so Gavin had gone about his day as usual, messing around with the lads, filming AHWU and modelling the store’s newest shirt (though he couldn’t quite escape the notion that it was weirdly familiar because… hadn’t they already released a shirt with ‘people like grapes’ on it before?) and wandering to over to the warehouse sometime during the afternoon to pester Ryan a little (though the man didn’t seem to mind too much given the amused grin he’d received for his efforts.

All the same, Gavin couldn’t quite shake the niggling doubts that’d begun to creep in, to the point that he’d ended up deliberately procrastinating the edit he was meant to hand in, just so he’d have an excuse to stay at the office a little later and put off the possibilities of having more weird bloody dreams that, right now, he desperately wanted to avoid for the sake of not questioning his whole bloody existence.

But then, halfway through his edit, his vision had blacked out and suddenly the room was as dark and foreboding as the dream he’d had the previous night. He’d forced himself to remain calm, pushing back the sudden rush of thoughts that he really wasn’t ready to deal with right now, if ever, only to become distracted from them moments later as Jack’s disembodied voice sudden began to drift in through the corners of his mind.

_Gavin? Honestly I don’t know if you can hear any of this but… I figure it’s worth a try right? I know Ray’s been coming here and talking to you everyday in the hope it helps and… well maybe it’s helping us more than it’s helping you but it is kind of nice to think that maybe you can hear us and that, if so, maybe we are able to help, if only a little bit… We miss you. A lot. I don’t think I even realized how much I would until… but the office is fucking quiet without you. Geoff’s barely scraping by from day to day, Ray only really talks these days when here with you and Michael… he hasn’t been able to film a ragequit in weeks. Ryan’s not faring well either but at least he doesn’t have to work every day with the constant visible reminder that you’re… And I’ve been trying to stay strong, for the rest of them you know? Trying to keep them going, keep them hoping but… I can’t do that on my own so you’re gonna have to help me out a little just… give me a sign. Doesn’t have to be a big one just… something… give me something…_ There’d been a long pause and the sound of a pained intake of breath before Jack had continued, _Ray’s right. We should’ve said something before… we always called you fucking dumb but it took this to make us realize that… oh god, Gavin we’re so fucking sor-_

Gavin had suddenly been jolted from… well, whatever the hell that’d been by the sound of his ringtone blaring out from his desk, just inches away from where his half-finished edit sat waiting for him on his screen. He’d quickly shaken off the weird pang of sadness that shifted uncomfortably in his gut, checking the caller id and trying not to freak out too much when he saw it was Jack who was calling him right now (because check another one for the weird bloody coincidences column he and Burnie had actually made a list of one time). He’d forced himself to keep the unease he was feeling out of his tone though, telling Jack he’d be home soon as he’d gotten back to work, quickly finishing up the editing and sending it to Burnie before he’d headed out of the office.

That night, it’d taken hours before he’d finally fallen into an uneasy sleep, disembodied Jack’s words playing over and over in his head, even as the real Jack lay there pressed into his side… Because honestly, his presence was actually doing very little to reassure Gavin that this was all real now, especially when he realized that he couldn’t actually feel the man’s body heat, nor any of his boyfriends’ for that matter… almost as if they weren’t really lying there in the bed beside him at all.

\----

The next day at work had been a long one. The weather was so hot it was almost stifling, Burnie was weirdly absent (and no one else seemed to even bloody question why when he’d asked them) and Gavin was having to resort to several cups of coffee just to power through his sleep deprivation from the night before as he did his best to hype himself up for the Let’s Play they were filming that day.

He’d mostly managed to shake off his unease by the time they were setting up for the video though, grinning as they loaded up the map for Achievement City (and pointedly ignoring the instincts that were telling him there were things missing from said map), the anticipated excitement for King Geoff part 2 making him bounce in his chair like a hyperactive kid (even with those same instincts screaming at him that it wasn’t Geoff’s turn to be King in these Let’s Play and that everything about this was bloody wrong…).

They’d been two minutes into recording the video when Gavin had blacked out again and, this time, it’d been Geoff’s voice he’d heard though the man’s voice sounded unusually hoarse and a little shaky as he spoke.

_Hey there dumbass… Jack and Ray keep talking about how much this helped them with all this and I figured if you can hear us you might want a break from those assholes in your ear all the time, a little more variety you know? And since we all know my voice is awesome as dicks who better than me to come talk you out of this huh? ...Gav, we need you to wake up. I… the apartment’s so fucking empty without you now. Never thought when we first starting living together that it’d become such a permanent thing but… I wouldn’t have it any other fucking way because you turned out to be the best goddamn roommate there is… This place is as much yours as as mine now and… well the place doesn’t fucking matter but I always figured the roommates thing was kind of fucking permanent because… well I can’t picture not living with you by this point, and I don’t fucking want to either… we were meant to grow old together idiot. Why didn’t you get that fucking memo? And why didn’t any of us tell you before… Just wake up soon okay? Please-_

By the time he finally snapped out of it, all of his boyfriends were staring at him with varying looks of concern littered across their faces and, after putting a hand to his face, Gavin could feel it was wet with tears he didn’t remember shedding… and the unease churning in his gut was suddenly stronger than ever…

He’d ended up getting sent home early that day, accepting Geoff’s slightly concerned offer the moment it was given. And a few hours later had found him curled up on the couch with a tub of ice cream that he’d pilfered from their freezer as he’d tried his best to ease the vice-like grip of discomfort that’d somehow wound its way around the Brit’s heart… And so it’d ended up taking him a few moments, because of that, to register the faint, almost phantom like, feeling of warm hands smoothing gently through his hair. When he’d looked up though, he’d been the only one in the room, his boyfriends all still hard at work back at the office.

And so he’d sat there and waited for the growingly familiar blackness to take hold of him, his vision turning dark only moments later as he caught faint snatches of conversation between whoever it was who was administering the touches (Ryan, as far as he could tell) and someone who sounded a hell of a lot like Burnie… only perhaps with a voice a little croakier than Gavin was used to hearing… And then suddenly ‘Burnie’ had been gone and he’d been left alone with Ryan’s voice.

_Hey Gavin… I’m sorry for not coming here before. I’ve never really been the best at dealing with this kind of stuff but… that’s no excuse. I guess I was just selfishly hoping you’d wake up so I wouldn’t have to see you like this but… now the doctors are starting to say that maybe you might not ever wake up… and I don’t think I’d have been able to live with myself if I hadn’t at least tried to reach out to you first. You know, you look strangely peaceful like this, almost as if you’re smiling… I wonder if you’re dreaming about something, hopefully its a happy something if you are… You know I even briefly entertained the possibility that it might be us you were dreaming about, especially after what Burnie said to us earlier but… I’m wrong aren’t I? Its probably some girl you met in England or a coffee shop or maybe even Barb… but its not us, is it? Or at least its not me... That’s why I never said anything you know, it wasn’t because I didn’t… as I said before, I’ve never been the best at dealing with this kind of stuff and that’s no excuse but it’s the only one I’ve got… But I’m here right now, and I’m sorry and… if you wake up now, I swear I’ll say it. We all will just… please, wake up._

Gavin had eventually come to on the couch, with the faintest tingly sensation of a kiss being pressed to his forehead and a scoop of melted ice cream making his shirt cling to his skin uncomfortably… or it should’ve been anyway though the distinct lack of stickiness he actually felt only did more to fuel his suspicions. He barely registered either though over the burning sort of agony he’d suddenly felt in his chest as he desperately ached to reach out and hug Ryan somehow, even if the version of the man he’d been hearing was all in his head… Though Gavin was increasingly getting the sense that he wasn’t, that none of this was, or ever had been for that matter.

Gavin Free was in a coma, of that he was almost certain by this point… and he needed to bloody wake up.

\----

It’d been the next day, when they were _supposedly_ recording a brand new podcast (supposedly because they were having that talk about the stunt driver and the headlighter fluid and Gavin bloody knew they’d had this conversation before) when he’d finally managed to black out again… and this time, instead of pushing away the uneasy feeling of having his existence questioned he’d clung tightly to the voice he heard, Michael’s, as the man had begun to speak.

_Wake the fuck up you fucking idiot just… stop being dumb and wake the fuck up I swear I… they’re going to turn off the life support Gavin, do you get what that fucking means? Not even Geoff can stop it now and believe me we’ve all fucking tried but they’re pulling the plug and we can’t let them, you can’t let them… please… how are we meant to do fucking anything without you now. What about Team Nice Dynamite, and the Lads, and the Let’s Plays? Who’s gonna make dumb bets with me and or ask weird questions? Or give us stuff to put on shirts whenever Roosterteeth run out of ideas? ...Who’s gonna drive us all fucking insane when we’re trying to film things and you fuck about? ...Or find weird ways to make us smile even when we’re having the worst fucking days ever and everything fucking sucks but then you just… fix everything. But now you’re fucking broken and none of the assholes who work here seem to give a damn and… they fucking should because… you’re fucking everything to me… to Ray, Geoff, Ryan, Jack… all of us… we fucking love you and none of us ever even realized before that goddamn car hit and you Burnie and now… you might not even fucking be hearing this… you might die never even fucking knowing that… No, fuck that, you’re hearing this. You’re fucking hearing this Gavin David Free because I’m gonna make goddamn sure you do and… you’re gonna wake up. You fucking will and all those doctors are gonna feel so fucking dumb when you do just… fucking wake up and show how wrong they were… please Gav just, if you can hear me… wake up._

And then Gavin had felt it, a light tingling sensation over his lips, almost as if he were being kissed, and he could feel the man’s tears hit his cheeks, softly at first, barely there and then… suddenly a little more firmly. And suddenly Michael’s lips were firmer too and… was that itchy material he could feel against his skin a hospital gown of some kind? And then the lips had been gone, and he could hear other voices enter, consoling Michael and he could feel footsteps approaching his bed, and Geoff snapping at someone and then suddenly the faint whirring noise he’d been hearing in his ears for months now was suddenly gone and then…

The first breath was shaky, the air getting caught in his throat a little and he couldn’t quite help the violent coughing that’d followed as he’d tried to readjust to the instinct, the room deathly silent all of a sudden as Gavin’s lungs had finally cleared and the breathing had started to become a little easier.

And then his eyes had slowly blinked into awareness and, with a weak body, muscles shaky and a little frail from the disuse it’d recently been experiencing, he’d turned to face the five men gathered in a huddle at the opposite end of the room who were pretty obvious in shock and staring at the Brit as if they were seeing a ghost. There was also a doctor in the room stood mere inches from his bed but Gavin pointedly ignored them as he’d taken another deep breath of air and then, with a croaky, hoarse voice and his eyes still rapidly blinking to adjust to the sudden light, Gavin finally uttered the first real words he’d spoken in months, “I heard you.”


End file.
